1,600 Palestinian Prisoners Begin Hunger Strike

About 1,600 Palestinian prisoners have begun an open-ended hunger strike in the Israeli jails across the occupied territories to protest imprisonment without charge and solitary confinement exercised by the Tel Aviv regime.

Palestinian prisoners began the hunger strike on Tuesday, April 17, which marks the Palestinian Prisoners Day.

Meanwhile, thousands of people held demonstrations in towns and cities across the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip on Tuesday to express solidarity with the prisoners.

Qadura Fares, head of the Palestinian Prisoners Club, said, “We are united and undivided when it comes to prisoners, and we will stand by them until they get their demands.”

Fares made the remark in an address to a gathering in the northern West Bank city of Nablus on Tuesday.

In addition to the West Bank, about 2,000 people marched to the headquarters of the Red Cross in Gaza City and set up a tent in solidarity with the Palestinian hunger strikers.

The hunger strike in Israeli jails has begun as reports say the Tel Aviv regime is expected to release Palestinian prisoner Khader Adnan, who went on a hunger strike for 66 days in protest at being held without charge under an administrative detention order.

Adnan’s lawyer said the Palestinian inmate will be released later on Tuesday but it has not been clear exactly when or where he is scheduled to be freed.

The administrative detention, often implemented by the Israeli regime against the Palestinian population, is a sort of imprisonment without trial or charge, allowing regime forces to make arrests without formal charges for up to six months. However, the detention order can be renewed for indefinite periods of time.

According to an April 1, 2012 report published by the non-governmental Palestinian prisoner support and human rights association, Addameer, at least 4,610 “political” Palestinian prisoners are held in Israeli jails.

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